Q. David Bowers
1 roll 1888-O = $52.50; 10 rolls = $490; 1 bag (50 rolls) = $2,300. I think that in all probability the 1888-O dollar is at least five times as scarce as the 1898-O currently selling above $70.This may be an excellent opportunity to buy;
The 1887-O dollar was also released but no more than 1/10th as many were released as the 1888-O. I suspect that this coin should fall in the same class as the 1892-O and shortly surpass $200. The few rolls I managed to obtain total something less than a bag, of which about 15 rolls remain. I can supply a maximum of one roll per customer at $100 per roll.
The 1886-O dollar still looks like a giant. I heard rumors of people receiving bags, but was never able to locate any quantity. One man did send in two nice rolls, one of which went into my own roll set and the other went into a customer's roll set. I would stake a fair amount of money that the vast majority of these coins have been melted, and recommend that you buy elsewhere-at between $300 and $350 per roll. I have only a few pieces in stock-no rolls.
By the way of general information, in the past several years our Treasury and the Federal Reserve System generally, have released groups consisting of many millions of silver dollars and it has generally been the case that each year some new date, or group of dates, came to light. For example, in 1956 a large quantity of Carson City dollars was released, and in fact I cannot think of a single date of Carson City dollar which did not appear at that time. Prior to 1956 the 1885-CC dollar was so scarce that single pieces brought $100 per coin. Remember, this was at the time when $5 for any silver dollar was a real big price. One pit boss in a Las Vegas casino told me about getting 200 of the 1889-CC's from their casino cashier at $2 each-all BU, of course. Wouldn't that be tough to take today?
Sometime in 1959 some of the really rare P-Mint dollars, such as the 1896, began to turn up, and the price dropped on the 1896 from $35 to $2. In past weeks it has risen several dollars per coin. Other P-mint dollars to appear at that same time included the 1885, 1886, 1889, 1890, 1892, 1893, 1894 and 1899. In fact bags of 1899-P dollars had turned up with regularity over the past four years. Then, of course at Christmas time 1962 came another real bonanza when all the O-Mint dollars appeared, including the 1898-O, 1899-O, 1900-O, 1901-O, 1902-O, 1903-O and the 1904-O. Many people did not realize it but there were a number of other date dollars which also turned up that same month, including several bags of mixed date Seated Liberty dollars, average circulated, and one bag of BU 1801 dollars,' and one bag each of BU 1859-O and 1860-O dollars. In addition, there were a small number of 1889-O dollars, nearly an equal number of 1890-O dollars, and a few 1891-O, even fewer 1892-O's-and I understand that Harry Forman obtained his bag of 1893-O's and sold them off at $15 per coin. This appears to have been the only bag turned up and certainly would have been well worth holding on to.
That unforgettable Christmas was just 15 months ago, and the release of all of the above listed valuable dollars really started something. Suddenly everybody became a silver dollar collector. There is more and more demand for dollars from our Treasury and from other depositories such as the Philadelphia Mint.
I know of a release of large quantities of the following date coins: 1878-7 TF, 1878-S, 1879,1880-S, 1881-O, 1881-S, 1882-S, 1883, 1883-O, 1884, 1884-O, 1885, 1885-O, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, and also quantities of the following dates were released from a couple of bags to rather modest amounts: 1878-8 TF, 1878-7/8 TF, 1878-CC, 1879-O, 1880-O, 1882-O, 1882-CC, 1883-CC, 1884-CC, 1885-S, 1887-O, 1888-O, 1890, 1891, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1903, 1927-S, 1928 and 1934-S. Please note that in this latter group some of the coins are exceedingly scarce.
The above paragraphs will perhaps give you some rough idea of what came to pass in recent years. Now if you will extend your thinking backwards into the 1920s and keep in mind that there were possibly two or three hundred million silver dollars stored in our Treasury and in our Federal Reserve System at one point, and remember that a major portion of these coins were brilliant Uncirculated bags which had never been offered to the public, you will understand how every two years a new group of dates would appear. Fortunately some people had the foresight to save a few rolls of each date.
Incidentally, many of you who received bags of unsorted silver dollars from us, which were stored between 1915 and 1918, complained about their very worn condition. Please remember that only a small portion of the total supply of silver dollars was actually in circulation and also that a silver dollar would usually become totally worn out in a period of five to 20 years. They are not, by any means, a long-lived excessively durable coin.
Finally, before listing an additional group of material for sale, I will pass on the best rumor I have heard about what the dollars are which remain in our Treasury. There are approximately 2.9 million silver dollars remaining, all of which are BU. I have been informed by supposedly knowing sources that 2.7 million of these coins are Carson City dollars, all of which date between 1880 and 1885 except for a very small number of 1879-CC's. The balance of nearly 200 bags is supposedly 1892, 1893 and 1894-P mint coins. I doubt that any more S-Mints remain, nor any of the later date CC dollars.
In corroboration, an old timer in San Francisco told me that when the San Francisco Mint was closed and their silver dollar reserve transferred into the Federal Reserve bank, that only 1878-S through 1882-S were included in the group transfer. All the other S-mint dollars had either been melted or disbursed years before. Some nasty little rumor about a single bag of 1893-S dollars keeps popping up, but I personally have never seen a strictly BU specimen, and since December of 1962 we have had at least two million silver dollars pass through our hands.